The manners of Comiket 83 attendees have been coming under fire after photographs of their “vast piles” of garbage were circulated online, with many seemingly keen to blame it on the barbarous habits of foreigners – although non-Japanese could be forgiven for complaining about a certain amount of overreaction as well…

Non-Japanese are in any case probably more likely to be astonished at how little rubbish the passage of some 170,000 people left – but by Japanese standards (which are, despite public spaces being almost uniformly devoid of bins, usually fairly immaculate – with the possible exception of cigarette butts) this apparently qualifies as a “Chinese” level of trash:

“Come on attendees! What is with this level of garbage!”

“It never used to be like this, there was never any trash. But in recent years…”

“We’re becoming more and more like the Chinese.”

“They’re as bad as train spotters.”

“The first day is nothing but pigs and fujoshi, can’t be helped.”

“If you don’t clean up your acts you’ll get the event cancelled!”

“The people who left all this garbage weren’t otaku, they were just groups of resellers and Chinese.”

“This isn’t some Korean city slum! Japanese should clean up their mess!”

“We’re not quite at the Korean level yet. It’s only ethnic Koreans who’d do a thing like that.”

“This was just because of the foreigners.”

“Right, the dirty Koreans were probably behind it, not us Japanese.”

“Get the police in to clear out the kids and illegal foreigners and it will improve.”

“Even if only 1% do it, at this scale that is thousands of people. It’s an international event, so there are Koreans and Chinese here as well, they can’t keep races with no manners out completely so it gets like this.”

“Lately idiots and foreigners really have increased.”

“Deal with your garbage people! If you can’t manage basic manners you shouldn’t come to Comiket!”

“Japanese are pretty uncouth as well.”

“Blame it on the mainstream attendees who come now.”

“This is what you’d expect from creepy otaku.”

“It is getting worse in recent years. Take it home or take it to the bins at a convenience store if you have to.”

“What can you expect from Japanese!”

“Events like this should be cancelled!”

“What, did you people somehow think otaku were better than other people?”

“I’m not defending this but you have to expect this from big crowds.”

“You people bring up Chinese and Koreans for something like this, but it happens all the time here too so what are you on about?”

“Actually I think there wasn’t too much considering how many people there were.”

“You think otaku are bad? Haven’t you ever seen the aftermath of hanami or a BBQ, with commoners?”

“Well, this isn’t bad compared to those events. But what I’m saying is it has got worse recently.”

Lol, are you kidding me? These lowlife otakus are racist? Is there anything lower than these losers? And the racism just takes away any redeeming values they have. They probably look like little pimply bitches in real life, lol.

Japanese is a nation of slaves who brah how good it is to be kept under there own governments thumb! This is hilarious! Japan, you can keep your kneeling position, I’ll walk my out your country! Bowing lil pipsqueaks!

Plus you got to remember, the majority of attendees are Japanese. This is just passing the blame on to a foreigner because the Japanese otaku don’t want to admit they dirty habits. By the way. I’m not Asian in the slightest, and I have a phobia of uncleanliness.

Seriously Japan stop making blatant lies and accusations that have no backing. Seriously I Think we can all come to the conclusion is big event = big crowds = big mess afterwards.

That’s like extremely clean compared to even very small events from where I live…
I suppose they are kinda right, dirty foreigners everywhere!
I mean, seriously, I’ve seen events that last 2 hours and gathered not even a 10th of that many people produce tons and tons more litter than that. Not even joking. Yeah, I hate it too, and I’d never litter in such an event, but most people couldn’t careless.

I am reminded of Occupy Wall Street, leaving similar messes behind wherever they go, including pooping on police cars. I am also reminded how little trash Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall left behind.

Wouldn’t a better comparison have been something like “Restoring Honor” vs “Restoring Sanity” since both left virtually no trash at all and Restoring Sanity had 2-3 times as many people as Restoring Honor? Oh, wait sorry that doesn’t support your argument guess that’s a bit inconvenient, carry on.

Funny but I read an article about trash and litter problems in places like on Mt. Everest and in the Amazon rain forest and such and all the locals were unanimous that the Japanese tourists and eco thrill seekers were the worst offenders by far and they can tell so by the Japanese lettering on the cans, boxes and plastic packaging strewn about. I know that doesn’t mean that ALL Japanese tourists are like that, but enough of them are so as to give you a bad rap. I suppose if there were more Chinese tourists abroad things would be a lot worse.

How much fucking racist shit is this site going to post? “Chinese levels of trash” Bitch please, Japanese trash shit as much as anyone else. Do you think Japanese shit don’t stink too? There are tons of people, from Japan as well as those barbarian countries. Who left that trash? Who fucking knows, but it looks like Japan dropped the ball on cleaning it up promptly. So quit fucking blaming the guests, clean up your own back yard and quit bitching like a little whiny bitch. Jesus Christ what a whiny article.

To quote my best friend whose been going to every Comiket since he moved there 4 years ago. “I’d like to note that foreigners make up MAYBE 0.04% of the population here at Comiket. And winter always has the least amount of foreigners here.”

I’ve been to japan and on day one of my trip I noticed an almost complete lack of trash cans in most public places…so of course it makes perfect sense the japanese are just blaming everyone else instead of just putting out a few more trash bags

I want to see if it really is from native citizens or from foreigners first. There’s really no way to tell if it’s just the large number of people in one spot for a particular event, or if it’s the type of people it attracts. Otaku? Foreigners? Scantily clad babes?

Unfortunately, I’ve been to far too many conventions in the US where the amount of trash just laying on the ground was disgusting. Something tells me there may be some truth to the generalizations that it was foreigners making a mess, but until there’s any proof it’s just hearsay.

Trashed “By Dirty Foreigners” I.E. trashed by japan fail and pedobear and teachrs feelin up middle school girls and ignorant police blaaa bergs … fill in by ect ect ect ect as yes even japam has become more “dirty” helll most poo clearing is hypocrite sneaky sneaky put poo in a plastic bag BUT i did see it when i as a tourist in Japan !!!!

I remember during the 2008 G8 summit in Hokkaido, all the major train stations in Tokyo had their bins sealed up to stop bombs being left etc. People just left their trash piled up/around the bins anyway, the train stations were a fucking trash heap, was like a 3rd world country.

The real reason why Japan is so clean is because generally they have very good sanitation crews who clean up any mess long before it becomes an eye sore.
What’s shown here was places they didn’t get to yet and a lot is vender trash from the snack booths.
Yep this is mostly Japanese generated trash and they probably cleaned it up soon afterwards.
Big gatherings are messy affairs esp when the turnout ends up being larger then expected causing the sanitation crews to be temporarily overwhelmed.

“You people bring up Chinese and Koreans for something like this, but it happens all the time here too so what are you on about?” and “Japanese are pretty uncouth as well.”

When I see things like this, it gives me a spiders thread of hope that 2ch isn’t 100% racist, hypocritical whiny ass motherfuckers behind a monitor in the safety of their room.

“What, did you people somehow think otaku were better than other people?”

This one gets me thinking, are Japanese otaku’s generally racist or nationalistic? Or is it just a 2ch thing? Considering past events of otaku’s jumping the bandwagon for nationalistic support it does pique my curiosity. Like do we apply the same view as say weeaboo or japanohphile who has to hate everything that isn’t Japanese?

Meh, I just think of Japan as that naggy super jewish mother-in-law who constantly reminds you to convert every end of year. Doesn’t like foreigners but accepts it in some twisted manner but still has her daughter’s best interest… Mrs.Lenoff….

I can verify what ryusoma said there. What I saw along the way wasn’t as bad as the photos seem to portray.

BTW, Arte, to follow up on your previous story on the Kuroke no Basketball groups being barred because of one hater making a terrorist threat to the authorities. I have seen the astonishing effect of one idiot’s words with my own eyes at the rows of empty booths at East Hall today on Day 2.

At first I even thought those booths sure were popular to be emptied by 2pm (booths open from 10am to 4pm), but when I asked the staff, I quickly understood right away.

i was there and not so many foreigners as they can think 😛 but surely MANY more attendents that my last time one year ago…..and the trash vanished just after the pics, japanese cleaners are very fast 😀

I was there yesterday. You wouldn’t believe the size of the crowd, it stretched over 3 block just for the west hall entrance! You don’t have a crowd that large and not have any rubbish problems, compounded by the fact that we waited for over an hour in line.

I just went to comiket yesterday between 12pm and 5 pm and I have to say that there were probably like 20-30 people tops I’ve seen that would be considered foreigners upon first glance. I seriously doubt this is the handy work of just foreigners. Even going that late into comiket, there were literally thousands and thousands of people enetering and leaving the place. Maybe they should take that into account as well?

One more thing, it was stuffy, hot, and smelly the entire time in there, on a level greater than any US con I’ve been to. I don’t know how the japanese can walk around in there with 3-4 layers of clothing when it’s like 50•F outside.

I attended Comiket 78 a couple years back. For lunch one time, I bought a yakisoba and sat down on the floor nearby to eat it. However, when I tried to pour the soy sauce out of the packet, some of it squirted onto the tile. I deliberated whether to get up, grab a napkin, and wipe it up in front of so many people, but ultimately decided to leave it. It was a very small amount, but still, I think back to it, and I’m so ashamed. T_T

what are these guys on about though? its obviously going to be like that after a festival… you should see shibuya at 4-5am in the morning after friday and saturday nights… its terrible but it does get cleaned up
oh and the garu raver types that hang out in ikebukuro surrounded by their filthy wrappers, cigarette butts etc…. u don’t hear them blaming dirty gaijins for that… its true they ready to blame others first rather than themselves…

Japan is a usually a clean place that will go to GREAT lengths to put things in the trash and Comiket attrackts Foreigners of all types. If you walk down chicago trash is all over the place cause people just drop it on the floor (I even have to clean my yard from the trash the wind blows on it and broken beer bottles). So japan isn’t to far from blaming the Foreigners really.

I thinking I agree with you, I dislike Japanese for being a fuckin racist, but they are clean people. It make sense, the rubbish increase with increasing number of foreigner in Comiket. Foreigner, unlike Japanese is less sanitary, care less about putting rubbish in right place.

to the foreners who posted above : get out of our contry. you are NOT welcome here espeshley disgusting big nose WESTERNERS. why are you at attracshons made for japanese anyway? THEY ARE NOT OF YOUR BUSINESS !

Well, I’m glad at least some of the comments aren’t so blatantly racist. There are trashy people EVERYWHERE, no matter where you live. Even with 300k people there, all it takes is like 100 bad apples to do the fairly limited amount of damage shown.

If anything, it’s the fault of the organizers for not hiring more people to clean up. All you really would’ve needed is a handful of people to go around picking up trash and emptying the bins.

True that.
I live in a country reputed for being clean. We got people hired by the government to clean our streets every single day, and even your average pedestrian would usually collect trash from the ground to throw away in the next trash bin.
Still, whenever there’s a big event (and believe me if I say my country’s size and population doesn’t even compare to Japan’s), at the end of the day the streets would be flooded with garbage.

Yet we’ve never blamed foreigners for our dirty streets. It wouldn’t make sense anyways, since our Events are rarely interesting to foreigners in the first place.
The last international event we’ve had was during some soccer championship, and our streets weren’t much dirtier after that than after any other event.

Japan’s once again just showing how Racist they can be. Don’t let it bother you.

You havn’t been to japan often i assume… I live in Canada and by no means do i think we have trash issues… but one thing i noticed in japan is there is zero trash… anywhere… If i saw this whiile i was there? i would of been shocked. Japanese people don’t really do this kinda stuff.

Dude I live in Canada too. You went to Japan, but have you been to Comiket? I went to C81, and I saw a little of this when I went. And I’m not shocked.
What you really should be saying is that there is zero trash *IN MOST PLACES*.

Yes of course, Japanese people tend to be very much cleaner. But Comiket and similar conventions are EXCEPTIONAL cases. People have to stand and sit for 12 hours in line for this event. Naturally, 1 in 100 people might drop something, even accidentally in this long period. With the increasingly humungous volume of attendees, you get this situation. It’s pretty understandable once you think about it.

As I recall, many Japanese post pictures of their wonderful rooms, many which are in a mess with empty cup of noodles and soda bottles everywhere, which they so proudly show off. So quick to blame others *sigh*

In the first place, there tends to be very very few bins around. Secondly, none of the people working as staff for comiket are hired (other than the people manning the industry booths). All the people doing the setting up and maintaining the order around are volunteers. If anything, I would say the organizers did a rather good job, its really the scumbags among the participants who are spoiling it all.

I find it funny how you un-educated people keep saying “Race” …the “Race” is “Asian”, the Nationality is “japanese”, “Korean”, or “Chinese”…if your gonna be racist, hate against an actual different RACE.

If they’re complaining about that little bit of mess they obviously haven’t seen Times Square in NYC for the New Years Celebration. They have an army of sanitation workers there the next day to clean it up!

We’re talking about mass event here (Note that I said “mass event”). We’re not talking about your ordinary public place and such. Even if Japanese is known for their prestige cleanness, do you expect for them to be 100% clean in this kind of big event?

And before you ask, yes I’ve already been to Japan before and I know how clean they are.

exact. I was at Comiket two years ago and it was so crowded that several times you couldn’t even walk properly through the corridors. how you expect someone in this situation to throw his garbage in the proper place? it is impossible to have bins everywhere too, so naturally it will start to be thrown everywhere.

the only thing that can be done in this case is prohibit the people to distribute flyers there, since they are first thing to be discarded.

Don’t speak as if you know what you’re talking about. If you’ve ever been to Japan (which based on your based, I guarantee you have not), Japan is truly an immaculate country. Garbage cans are not at every street corner like in most Western countries, yet somehow, the streets are kept litter free. Why is that? Well, it is simply based upon their culture. Now your argument that the more people you have, the more likely you’ll find an idiot (or idiots). That is true, but with a country that has a lot more people than you can imagine, condensed in an extremely small area, yet somehow still remains pristine, your argument is no longer valid.

I live in one of the worst european countrys that has grounds so dirty and full of litter that some times makes me gag… Not to mention the ruined/old falling buildings… And i taught myself never to litter the floors… And yes theres trash bins everywhere… but ppl still dont care. You can learn to be civilized by yourself, its not hard to distinguish from right to wrong. I wish i could live in Japan or Canada…

If you guys want know the secret behind how Japanese people can keep their public space so clean, I will let you guys know. All Japanese people were taught to hold the garbage, either in a bag or in their pocket, until they see a trash can or bring it home and throw it in the trash from there. I been in Japan myself and learned to do this very thing. Now, it feels natural to do it.

I’ve been to the fireworks festival in Asakusa held every year to a crowd of just less than one million people in a reasonably small area. Most people were sitting on cardboard boxes, drinking and having picnics. Guys were going around selling pizza and icecream. No less than 10 minutes after the last firework, there wasn’t as much as a chewing gum wrapper on the ground.

I’ve lived in Japan for 6 years. It’s certainly cleaner than most countries I’ve lived but it isn’t immaculate. Cigarette butts and beer cans are easy to find. Bento trays are all over the place, especially in coastal areas. Bubble gum on gaming machines and under seats. Still a whole lot better than in SE Asia but it ain’t perfect.

I’m not him but I have lived in Japan for a few months and it was cleanner than any other country I have been. Even cities in developed countries with a lower population density and with a bunch of garbage bins every blocks the streets can’t be compared to Japanese streets.

Surprise that all these SanCOn japan cock suckers bitching about large number of people in small area as excuse for littering when foreigners are insinuated.

Just fyi whether you like it or not, Japanese are taught to carry their own rubbish during events like these, to a lesser extent Koreans and Taiwanese practice that as well, but definitely not the PRCs and Americans.